I have played the same game. I invested in AAPL at a split adjusted $8 and then sold it all at $75. Then bought back in at $51 with half and still hold the whole damn thing. It currently occupies $100k of our portfolio. I cannot bring myself to sell it.

Had another winner that we got for $0.88 and sold for $9.50 and put all the proceeds into our main portfolio (Jones Soda). Never looked back.

There have been others, many losers that reduce taxes owing. But generally the wild-assed bets have paid off because we are not afraid to bail out of losers and hang onto winners.

But the real question you are asking is: What is your risk tolerance? And only you can answer that one!

For us, it is higher than the average on this board. We are currently holding Lululemon for example, when all of our friends took profits $50 ago. If it drops 20%, well it was never real money then was it?

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If your speculation account is less than 10% of your total liquid investment account, I would continue as you are presently doing. If the speculation account is greater than 10%, I would reallocate the excess to your "real" account.

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Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Question is what happens to AAPL if Steve Jobs is not able to return? I owned the stock before he returned. Sold at a profit unfortunately. He returned and the rest is history. Now he is gone again, many speculate the stock will be trashed again if his health problem gets the better of him?

Somewhere in your original plan for the portfolio, you likely had X% for this fun account. Since it has done so well and is now bigger than it's original X%, you could treat it like any other successful investment and rebalance to your target amount. Take the excess off the table and keep playing (if you are still so interested) with the fun X% you set for yourself.

If I allotted $1000 to blow in Vegas and I won $10,000 in the process, I'd take $9000 off the table and limit my continued gambling to the original $1000. Worst case, if I lost "everything" eventually I'm still $9000 ahead.

I would approach this pretty much the same way, though if my total portfolio rose by 50% in the meantime (for example) I might be willing to raise my "gambling stake" by 50% to $1500. But most of my speculative "winnings" would come off the table and out of the speculation pool.

__________________"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?"-- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)

Since I have been retired, I am less inclined to rebalance because I have the time to monitor and focus. Like I should somehow earn my keep through portfolio outperformance!

If that works for you, you make your own choices. For me, it sounds like another way to rationalize active management and market timing. I know I can do really well with that, until suddenly I don't. So, I don't do that anymore. Each of us picks their own path, but my choice would be sticking to the investment plan I planned on, not improvising because I hit a lucky streak. I do have contingency plans for both upside and downside surprises, so if your upside contingency plan is to increase risk and roll with it, then I wish you continued good luck.

...so if your upside contingency plan is to increase risk and roll with it, then I wish you continued good luck.

What I consider to be the secret to my speculation is to quickly get rid of my losers. Take my lumps and get on with it. This seems to be the single characteristic that seems to distinguish me from others. I hang onto winners until it no longer makes sense to do so. Two quarters of mediocre performance is enough for me. Apple is approaching that, especially in C$.

Of course that assumes that at least some of my picks are winners. But it is not gambling. In fact, I don't gamble. Once in a while I get into a friendly game but I consider the stake to be the cost of entertainment. If I end up ahead, I thank my luck. Very different than speculating with a small part of the portfolio.

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